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Man City must beat Real Madrid at Bernabeu to avoid UCL exit - live commentary

talksport.com, 17 February 2025, 15:23
Manchester City must beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu if they are to stand any chance of progressing in the Champions League this week.

The Citizens trail the reigning champions 3-2 after a spectacular late collapse at the Etihad in the first leg of their play-off.

City led heading into the closing stages thanks to an Erling Haaland double, but a couple of poor defensive errors allowed the visitors to flip the match.

First, Brahim Diaz equalised after a mistake by Ederson before Vinicius Junior beat Rico Lewis to a bouncing ball and Jude Bellingham was on hand to tap in.

Since then, City have thrashed Newcastle 4-0, with Omar Marmoush grabbing a hat-trick, so their confidence should be high again.

But Carlo Ancelotti's men don't often lose at home.

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Real Madrid vs Man City: Another milestone

Haaland is just one goal away from his 50th in the Champions League, and he's only played 48 times.

It is a brilliant rate of goalscoring from the Norwegian in supposedly the hardest competition in the world.

However, Haaland has made it look so easy, and it is a matter of time before he hits 50.

Of course, he will hope he can score at least one at the Bernabeu as part of a famous City victory.

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Certainly, at this moment in time, that would probably mean more to him than this impressive personal milestone.

Real Madrid's 3-2 win in the first leg against Man City was the 40th time they've won the first leg of a European knockout stage tie away from home - they've progressed from 37 of the previous 39, failing only against Odense Boldklub (1994-95 UEFA Cup) and Ajax (2018-19 UEFA Champions League).

Man City's 3-2 defeat in the first leg was the fifth time they've lost the first leg of a UEFA Champions League knockout stage tie, going on to be eliminated on each of the previous four occasions.

Real Madrid have lost just one of their six UEFA Champions League home games against Manchester City (W3 D2), going down 2-1 in the round of 16 in 2019-20.

Real Madrid vs Man City: Team news

The big news for the hosts is that Antonio Rudiger has returned to training and is in line to be involved here.

David Alaba is also training with the first team after injury, so he could be in contention to play some part.

However, their defensive woes continue with Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao and Lucas Vazquez all out.

Bellingham will be able to play despite his red card at the weekend after he was deemed to have insulted the referee.

Meanwhile, Haaland limped off for Pep Guardiola's side at the weekend with what looked to be a knee problem, but he is expected to be fine.

Rodri and Manuel Akanji are long-term absentees, while Jack Grealish, Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake are doubtful.

Marmoush's hat-trick is sure to put him in contention.

Manchester City have lost nine of their 27 UEFA Champions League meetings with Spanish opponents, almost twice as many defeats than against sides from any other nation (5 vs French and German teams). Indeed, their nine losses vs Spanish teams accounts for 28% of their overall defeats in the competition (9/32).

Real Madrid have only failed to score in one of their last 78 UEFA Champions League home games (207 goals scored), doing so in a 3-0 loss to CSKA Moscow in December 2018.

Manchester City have lost each of their last three away games in the UEFA Champions League. Only once previously have they last four in a row in the competition (under Roberto Mancini between 2011 and 2012), while this is already Pep Guardiola's longest losing streak away from home in the Champions League.

Real Madrid vs Man City: What has been said?

Guardiola has admitted his side have a very small chance of beating Los Blancos.

The City boss said: "The margin to win in Bernabeu in that position, everybody knows that if you ask before the game, the percentage to go through, I don't know, we arrive at 1 per cent, it will be minimal.

"But as much as you have a chance, we will try, that's for sure.

'If you tell me, if you perform like [Saturday], we finished 22nd in the Champions League, of course not, we would have finished higher.

"But the reality, we have been really, really poor in performance in the results this season, and just for one game, that today, played really good, and it's not going to change the opinion, the reality, the team, it is right now, and we are still not good in terms of day by day.

"But of course, it's better to travel to Madrid with this result than imagining defeat in the last minutes, so at the end, okay, the chance is, minor, because the result was not good, five minutes ago, with 2-1, it will be different, but with 2-3, the chances is, but as much as you have a chance, we are going to take it, and we'll see what happens."

Manchester City have lost three UEFA Champions League games when scoring the first goal this season - 1-4 against Sporting CP, 2-4 against PSG and 2-3 against Real Madrid. No team has ever lost four games despite going 1-0 up in a single campaign before.

Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola will be the first managers to face each other on 10 occasions in the UEFA Champions League, eight of which have come while in charge of their current clubs, Real Madrid and Manchester City. Ancelotti has won four of the nine meetings so far (D3 L2), while he's never lost at home to the Spaniard (W2 D2).

Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham has scored more UEFA Champions League goals against Manchester City than he has versus any other opponent (3). It's also the joint-highest number of goals an English player has scored against an English opponent in the competition (Frank Lampard also 3 vs Liverpool).

Real Madrid vs Man City: Date and how to follow

This Champions League play-off second leg is set to take place on Wednesday, February 19.

Kick-off at the Bernabeu is scheduled for 8pm UK time.

talkSPORT 2 will have live coverage of the game, with commentary from Ian Danter and England icon Stuart Pearce.

talkSPORT.com will also have updates throughout on our dedicated Champions League blog.

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